[Antituberculous drug-resistance among homeless peoples]

We studied on the prevalence of drug-resistance among 65 homeless cases who were admitted and treated for active tuberculosis at the Nakano National Chest Hospital during the period from 1990 to 1992 and at the International Medical Center of Japan during the period from 1993 to 1994. Resistance to one or more first line antituberculous drug were revealed in 14 cases out of 65 (21.5%) in initially treated cases 6 out of 43, and in retreated cases 8 out of 22. The prevalence of drug resistance in this study was significantly higher compared with 2 out of 39 cases (5.1%) in our previous report during the period from 1986 to 1988. In these drug-resistant cases, multidrug-resistant cases, namely, resistant to at least 2 drugs including both INH and RFP were founded in 6 cases (9.2%). Compared with drug-sensitive cases, the negative convertion rate of bacilli was lower and the number of defalters was significantly larger. It was suggested that higher prevalence of drug-resistance and defalting from the adequate treatment in homeless cases of tuberculosis possibly makes the prognosis of drug-resistant tuberculosis worse and treatment of such cases more difficult.